New Delhi: The fight of IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt against a mighty state authority is still going on and some filmmakers must be watching the proceedings with utmost interest. A term like absolute truth is non existent in the contemporary world so giving clean chit to one or the other party is not the purpose.
The Hindi film industry has always shown interest in individuals who have dared to stand up against the powerful establishment. It gives them the exact platform to launch a film with a real life hero in the middle. Such stories save their energy because the makers only need to interconnect the series of plots, rather than generating a whole new concept.
But, have we seen many of such characters in Hindi films?
The west can boast of films such as ‘The Sea Inside’, ‘Born on the Fourth of July’, ‘The Times of Harvey Milk’, ‘All The President’s Men’, ‘The Insider’ and many more films but can we also do the same?
One man against crime and injustice is a favourite subject in Bollywood for sure but the films have rarely showcased real life whistleblowers. The directors, who have featured such characters, have also taken care of the commercial elements.
The Mumbai police commissioner in Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Company’ was one such crusader but the film did not focus much on the commissioner’s battle. Moreover, the amount of the character’s resemblance with the real life hero is uncertain.
E Nivas’ ‘Shool’ and Mahesh Manjrekar’s ‘Kurukshetra’ were also close to the reality and so were some other films but none of them actually focussed on authentic whistleblowers.
Rajkumar Gupta’s ‘No One Killed Jessica’ is the only recent film with an actual whistleblower at the helm of affairs and fact like this makes the list extremely short.
Further, the Hindi film industry does not lapse much time before latching on to a subject with potential violence and glamour. ‘Not A Love Story’, ‘Ab Tak Chappan’, and ‘Shootout at Lokhandwala’ just provide the base to this argument.
If the society and the films are meant to provide guidance to each other than the films need to become more oriented towards focussing real life heroes who have done something remarkable or have shown exceptional courage.
Portraying whistleblowers in true light will also enhance the prestige of cinema as a medium. The common mass still considers cinema as a stress buster but the time has come when it should become the stress giver by presenting the disturbing stories of whistleblowers.
The Hollywood has continued the trend with latest release ‘The Whistleblower’ and now it is Bollywood’s turn to say that we are no lesser when it comes to good socially oriented content.
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